OktoberFest

This past week was so busy with work, working out,  and I had Maddie and Jane, who I met in Lake Como, stay for a couple of days. Maddie and Jane are from the U.S. and are traveling all over Europe until November. They took a spontaneous trip from Amsterdam to where I live and they were able to get some rest, eat heavy german food, and do some exploring in Germany. They are such amazing girls and I wish them the best in their travels in Europe and beyond.

                                               

       

Yay!! The day has finally arrived, Oktoberfest!! So much anticipation for this day. I've been wanting to go for years and I am finally able to live the dream. The day started at 3:30 am. I put on my new red dirndl and was picked up by my friend Jasmine around 4:30 am. Our train to Munich left at 5:06 a.m. I'm sure you guys are probably thinking, " Why so early?" Well tents open at 9:00 am and if you don't have a reserved ticket and get there late, you will not be allowed to go into the beer tents. You also need an actual seat at a table in order to be served. So it was a priority to get there early!
The trains were so packed that we had to sit on the floor for the remainder of our trip to Munich. People were chugging beers and wine and it was only 6 am.

Once we arrived to Munich, we walked about 15 minutes and arrived at the Oktoberfest grounds. There were already thousands of people! There were many food stands, rides,and huge beer tents everywhere.We headed to the Hofbrauhaus tent and there was a huge line of people scrambling to get in as they opened the doors. We entered the tent and ran aimlessly trying to find seats for our group of 5 people. Everyone was standing on tables trying to rally up their friends. We were lucky enough to find a table. These tents hold up to 7,000 people inside and so it took a bit of time to get our beers. It's amazing to see these servers carry 8 beer steins that hold up to a liter each. I wonder what the hiring process it, I would definitely not make the cut.

We got our beers, huge pretzels, and met people from all over the world. There were a lot of Americans in our tent though. People were standing on tables chugging a whole liter of beer, crowds singing drinking songs, and people throwing pretzels around the room. We obviously joined in on throwing pretzels around and it felt like I was back in middle school we we started food fights all the time.

After drinking for a couple of hours, we left the tent and ventured around the grounds. We went on a couple of rides, got bratwurst, crepes and churros with nutella ( Cheat Day) and drank outside other tents. We met a cool group of Germans and hung out with them until we headed home. The train ride was so miserable. I was dying of thirst and my dirndl was so tight that I couldn't breathe.

So happy to shower and go to sleep when I got home!

Oktoberfest was so much fun!! I highly recommend it and hope many of you can come for next year's celebrations :)